Modi’s Message: Don’t Mess With Me or Take Me for Granted

Modi’s cabinet reshuffle implies that only Amit Shah seems to be enjoying the Prime Minister’s complete trust.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during swearing ceremony. (Photo: PTI)

I can’t even remember when a Prime Minister sent a message so loud and clear through an exercise that is his sole prerogative: Cabinet reshuffle.

Of course, Manmohan Singh never had the freedom: His council of ministers was a mix of diktats he got from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and coalition supremos like K Karunanidhi, Sharad Pawar and the gang. Atal Behari Vajpayee also exercised this prerogative sparingly, like when he insisted and successfully instituted Jaswant Singh as his finance minister, despite opposition from the Swadeshi lobby and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

It was largely a consultative exercise between Vajpayee, Advani, RSS chief Rajju Bhaiya and alliance partners.

The United Front Prime Ministers– Deve Gowda and IK Gujral were hardly prime ministers in that sense. The last time someone behaved like a Prime Minister was PV Narsimha Rao, who ran his minority government with a fair degree of independence and authority through a mix of cunning, corruption and real politik.

That was more than 20 years ago and for all his brahmanical guile, Narsimha Rao had to constantly watch over his shoulders and thus was not always his own master.

Performance Will Count and Merit Will be Rewarded

Modi suffers from no such handicaps. He has used this cabinet reshuffle both to reiterate a few points and to make a few new ones.

That he is his own boss is something we all knew. He has re-emphasised this by virtually sacking Smriti Irani; by clipping the wings of Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shanker Prasad; by demoting the likes of Jayant Sinha, Mahesh Sharma and Sadanand Gowda, and promoting the quiet doers like Prakash Javdekar and Manoj Sinha.

Piyush Goyal may not have got a cabinet rank but he will be looking after important infrastructure portfolios like coal, power, renewable energy and mines.

The message is clear: Proximity, sycophancy and media management won’t work in Modi’s cabinet. Performance will count and merit will be rewarded. Most of the new inductees are educated professionals– doctors, lawyers, conservationists, ex-bureaucrats and former journalists.

That someone like MJ Akbar, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Modi till not-so-long ago, will now be India’s voice and face across the world as Minister of State for External Affairs is a signal for me. As credentials go, I can’t think of anyone more suited for the job than Akbar, the suave, sophisticated, articulate and liberal modern face of Indian Muslims. The PM could have been petty, as many remain convinced that he is, but the fact that Modi is willing to forget, forgive and move on bodes well for his government as well as the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses with cabinet ministers after the swearing-in ceremony after the recent Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Reuters)

Jaitley and Amit Shah Enjoy Modi’s Confidence

The other message he is sending is don’t mess with him and don’t take him for granted. Also, don’t become an embarrassment for his government. Smriti Irani learnt it the hard way. She got into the habit of getting into wholly avoidable slug fests and slaying imaginary demons. Also, proximity to corporate houses will not be appreciated. Ravi Shanker Prasad lost his position in the Telecom Ministry because he was seen as being soft on Reliance.

Jayant Sinha had become a bit snooty and arrogant too early in his political innings. He also paid the price for speaking out of turn. Sinha also lulled himself into believing that nothing will ever go wrong with him as he was among the chosen ones and someone who had the Prime Minister’s blessings.

It will take a while to fully appreciate how much – if at all – Arun Jaitley has lost out in this cabinet reshuffle. He still retains finance, and in today’s world, that remains the most important portfolio after the Prime Minister’s. Has he been divested of I&B because the Prime Minister wants someone to do a better job there or is it simply a case of Modi wanting Arun Jaitley to give finance his undivided attention?

My guess is that while Jaitley still remains part of the inner circle and enjoys the Prime Minister’s confidence, his influence, power and position on the high table has certainly lost some of its earlier sheen. But by how many notches? Nobody knows.

The final message: Only one man seems to be enjoying the complete trust of the Prime Minister as of now and he is perhaps the only one– apart from a couple of senior PMO officials who knew and perhaps had a say in this exercise. Amit Shah. Fellow traveler from Gujarat and Narendra Modi’s ‘Hanuman’.

(Published in an arrangement with IANS.)

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